Greylock Thunder Successful in First Day of Home Event

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Avery Lane raced home on an error in the bottom of the sixth to give the Greylock Thunder 16-and-under travel softball team an 8-7 walkoff win over the Columbia County (N.Y.) Reds and a 2-0 record on the first day of the Summer Storm event at Alcombright Field.
 
The Thunder is welcoming in three other travel teams for a two-day round-robin event that concludes on Sunday afternoon.
 
Greylock won the first game, 4-3, over the Valley Storm of Greenfield.
 
It then trailed, 6-0, in the third inning of its second game against the Reds.
 
But the Thunder stormed back, eventually tying it with a four-run fifth and winning in a walkoff the next inning, the last allowed under the event’s time limit.
 
Lane started the winning rally by reaching on an infield error to lead off the inning.
 
Kendall Moran then sacrificed to move Lane over, but an error on the play allowed Moran to reach base and Lane to score the winning run.
 
Bayleigh Tatro went 3-for-4 against the Reds. Sydney Payson, Genevieve Lagess and Reagan Walker each had a pair of hits, and Evy Clairmont doubled in the win.
 
Moran went the distance in the circle, settling down after Columbia County’s five-run second inning to give seven runs with two strikeouts.
 
Lane won the opener in the circle on Saturday morning, giving up just one earned run and striking out eight in five innings of work.
 
The Thunder took a 2-1 lead in the third when Tatro doubled in a run, but the Storm came back with a run in the bottom of the fourth to tie it.
 
In the fifth, Payson got the Thunder started with a leadoff triple, and the team used a walk to Lagess, a wild pitch and an error to generate two runs and take a 4-2 lead.
 
The Valley Storm used a leadoff single and an error to put a runner in scoring position with no out in the bottom of the inning. A sacrifice bunt moved that runner to third, and she scored on a passed ball. But Lane got the next two hitters on called third strikes to end the inning and the game.
 
Greylock plays three more games on Sunday, starting with the Latham (N.Y.) Lynx at 9 a.m. before getting rematches against the Reds and Storm.
 
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Reign Purple Reigns Over 1791 14-and-Under Field

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Camden Sievers Sunday went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles at the plate and struck out eight in four innings on the mound as the Berkshire Reign Purple won the 14-year-old Division Championship Game to conclude the inaugural 1791 Classic at Joe Wolfe Field.
 
But there were no losers in the final game of the three-day, eight-team event as the Purple beat the Berkshire Reign White, 10-2, in what amounted to a celebration of the travel baseball program’s success – over the weekend, this summer and the last five years.
 
Reign founder and coach Kristopher Ireland was in the losing dugout in the split squad game on Sunday evening, but, in reality, he couldn’t lose after pulling off what he promised will be the first of many 1791 Classics to come.
 
“The tournament went great,” Ireland said. “The weather held out. I think we only had one game that got called short for rain, which we probably could have gotten in, but it would have made it a late night [Friday].
 
“The weather was great over the weekend. The facilities held up wonderfully. We got hit with a thunderstorm in Dalton on Friday night, and our parents stepped up and got the field ready for Saturday’s games. And, once again, kudos to North Adams for hosting us here and Dalton for hosting us there. In Pittsfield, we had fields there, too, if necessary.”
 
Nothing, including the weather, could stop the Reign Purple in the four-team 14-and-under bracket, where it went 5-0 – three pool games plus Sunday’s semi-final and final – outsourcing opponents by a combined 65-17.
 
In Sunday’s title game, Kody Lesser was 3-for-3 with an RBI, Spencer Kotski was 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs, and Kai Laframboise went 2-for-3 with a triple in a 13-hit attack.
 
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